Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.

This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.

On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system.

Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking psychiatric care around the world.

This week, we interview Laura Delano. Laura is Co-Founder and
Executive Director of the Inner Compass Initiative and The
Withdrawal Project, which aim to create safe spaces for people to
connect and the opportunity to learn about and be guided through
the process of getting beyond the mental health system and off
psychiatric drugs.

The passion she feels for the mission and vision of ICI arises
from the fourteen years she spent lost in the mental health system
and the journey that she’s been on since 2010, when she chose to
leave behind a “mentally ill” identity and the various treatments
that came with it, and gradually began to rediscover and reconnect
with who she really was and what it means to suffer, struggle, and
be human in this world.

Since becoming an “ex-patient”, Laura has been writing and
speaking about her personal experiences and about the broader
social and political issues sitting at the heart of “mental
illness” and “mental health”. Since 2011, she has worked both
within and beyond the mental health system. In the Boston area, she
worked for nearly two years for a large community mental health
organization, providing support to and advocating for the rights of
individuals in emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, and
institutional “group home” settings. After leaving the “inside” of
the mental health system, she began consulting with individuals and
families seeking help during the psychiatric drug withdrawal
process. Laura has also given talks and workshops in Europe and
across North America, facilitated mutual-aid groups for people in
withdrawal, and organized various conferences and public events
such as the Mad in America International Film Festival.

In this interview, we got time to talk about Laura’s personal
experiences of the mental health system and what led her to
co-found the Inner Compass Initiative and The Withdrawal
Project.

In this episode we discuss:

Laura’s experiences as a patient in the mental health system,
starting treatment aged thirteen and leaving the system behind aged
27.

How she spent much of that time as a compliant patient, taking
the medications and following the advice of her doctors.

That, by 2010, she was on 5 medications (Lithium, Abilify,
Lamictal, Effexor and Ativan) and had spent the last decade
becoming worse and unable to properly engage with life.

How she came to read Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker
and that it was a profound moment of realisation.

That Laura decided to take control of her life and became
determined to get off the drugs as quickly as possible.

How traumatic it was to come to the realisation that almost
everything she had been told during treatment was overly simplistic
or incorrect.

That Laura did experience feelings of being a victim of
psychiatry, but realised that this increased her emotional
dependency on psychiatry and that it was necessary to move beyond
that to feel free.

That these experiences made Laura passionate about her own
process of healing and rediscovering herself and helping others to
find their way back to themselves after being psychiatrized.

That as she healed she moved into a space of acceptance and
gratitude and felt that the period around three years off the drugs
was when she came to feel really alive and motivated again.

That Laura feels that if we are going to move beyond the mental
health system, it is about helping people to realise they don't
need the mainstream system and point them to alternatives at a
local level and creating physical spaces where people can come
together.

How Laura came to co-found The Inner Compass Initiative and The
Withdrawal Project which aim to create safe spaces for people to
connect and the opportunity to learn about and be guided through
the process of getting beyond the mental health system and off
psychiatric drugs.

That The Withdrawal Project was highlighted in a recent New
York Times article discussing antidepressant withdrawal.

How ICI and TWP present information on many aspects of
psychiatric drugs and withdrawal to help guide and inform people
who do want to start the journey off their psychiatric drugs and
away from the mental health system.

That TWP connect is a free peer to peer networking platform
that allows people to connect one on one with others who have
similar experiences.

How a similar peer to peer system is available on ICI to enable
conversations about moving beyond the mental health system.

That Laura wants to encourage people not to give up because we
do heal from psychiatric drugs and that we need to spread that
message far and wide.

The need to both learn and unlearn when approaching how we take
back our power and control of our lives after psychiatric
treatment.

How important it is to properly prepare before starting to
taper from psychiatric drugs and how the Withdrawal Project can
enable that preparation.

The ‘speed paradox’ when coming off psychiatric drugs.

How people can find out more about The Inner Compass Initiative
and The Withdrawal Project.

That Laura is keen to support local community initiatives to
get underway.

About the Podcast

Welcome to the Mad in America podcast, a new weekly discussion that searches for the truth about psychiatric prescription drugs and mental health care worldwide.
This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care and mental health. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change.
On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking mental health around the world.
For more information visit madinamerica.com
To contact us email podcasts@madinamerica.com